Category Archives: frankmagliochetti

A team of researchers in Spain reports the development of a new three-dimensional (3D) printer capable of printing human skin suitable for transplant into patients. The printed skin is also suitable for testing drugs and cosmetics.

The team included several groups of researchers, including a group from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain. The researchers describe their breakthrough in the scientific journal, Biofabrication.

3D Printing and Skin Production

3D printing has been around since the 1980s, when Charles (Chuck) Hull introduced the first stereolithography apparatus (SLA), but the 3D printing industry is now experience rapid growth with applications in many fields. In medicine, 3D printing holds great promise in someday giving clinicians the ability to produce personalized, complex human tissues and organs on demand. One woman has already received a 3D printed ear from one company, for example, while another company provides 3D printed implants that the recipient’s body converts to bone.

Three-dimensional printing of human body parts is challenging in a number of ways. Replicating the complexity of anatomical structures is difficult. Ensuring the printed tissue survive transplantation in a living body is another problem.

The scientists in Spain have already engineered plasma-based, two-layered skin used successfully in the treatment of burns and other wounds in a large number of patients. The primary drawback to this method is that it takes 3 weeks to produce enough skin to cover an extensive burn or large wound. Another disadvantage is that the scientists must perform much of the process manually.

3D printing is similar to a desktop computer printer except that the nozzle on the 3D printer exudes biological components rather than ink. These biological components, or bio-inks, are essential to successful 3D printing of human organs and tissues.

To aid in the process, a computer controls the nozzles and flow of biological components so that the nozzles deposit the bio-inks on precise locations on the print bed.

Prints large area of skin in 35 minutes

The authors of the study describe how their 3D printing method generated a 100 x 100 centimeter area of skin in just under 35 minutes.

Like the scientists’ existing plasma-based manual method of producing skin, the 3D printing technology generates two layers of skin – the epidermis and the dermis. The printer starts by producing the epidermis, including the protective outermost layer of keratinized cells, known as the stratum corneum. Next, it prints the thicker, deeper dermis, complete with collagen-producing fibroblasts.

The new 3D printing method is faster, but still complex. One of the authors of the report, Juan Francisco del Cañizo of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, notes:

“Knowing how to mix the biological components, in what conditions to work with them so that the cells don’t deteriorate, and how to correctly deposit the product is critical to the system.”

The research team tested the printed skin in test tubes and in immunodeficient mice. Transplantation of the printed skin into the mice helped the scientists test the long-term effects in a living animal. In both tests, the 3D printed skin was very similar to human skin and indistinguishable from the manually produced bi-layered skin from plasma.

There are two main potential uses for this 3D skin – to produce skin for research and laboratory testing of drugs and cosmetics, and to produce person-specific skin from the patient’s own cells to treat burns and other wounds. The research team is also investigating ways to use the technology to print other human tissues.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Telemedicine for Assessing Levels of Consciousness in Comatose Patients: How Does it Compare to Bedside Assessment?

Effective care for comatose patients in intensive care units (ICUs) depends on proper intervention based on reliable assessment. Researchers recently conducted a study at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Arizona to compare the effectiveness of using telemedicine to assess levels of consciousness in comatose patients with standard bedside assessment.

Proper intervention relies on the ability to recognize changes in a comatose patient’s clinical status quickly. This had usually meant that, in order to complete an assessment, the practitioner needed to be in the same room. Advanced medical technology is changing all that and robotic medicine now allows clinicians to assess patients from across the hospital or from across the world.

Telemedicine has been around since the 1960s, when NASA built telemedicine technology into astronauts’ suits. Prior to this technology, astronauts had to rely on crewmates for an accurate diagnosis. Monitors in the suits sent biometric information about the wearer back to earth for assessment.

Computers have revolutionized telemedicine and the internet helps doctors assess patients living in remote places. This is especially helpful for patients living in underserved areas.

Despite major advances, many still worry about the effectiveness in using this technology for the most critically ill patients. A new study published in Telemedicine and e-Health should help to dispel this fear, with researchers showing that robotic telemedicine can be used successfully to complete assessments in comatose ICU patients.

Testing the Reliability of Telemedicine in the Assessment of Levels of Consciousness

Researchers enrolled 100 patients from Mayo Clinic Hospital in Arizona into the study, which occurred over a 15-month timeframe. Mean age of patient participants was 70.8 years. On average, each examination took just over 5 minutes.

Sixteen medical doctors also participated by using two scoring systems, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and the Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR) score, to assess patients’ levels of consciousness. The researchers randomly assigned two practitioners to each patient; one doctor used real-time audio and a visual robotic telemedicine system to perform the assessment and the other clinician conducted an assessment at the patient’s bedside. Each used GCS and FOUR scales.

The researchers used paired t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) to compare the GCS and FOUR scores between bedside and remote physician.

Differences in GCS and FOUR scores between remote and beside assessment were small. The mean Glasgow Coma Scale score at bedside was 7.5 while the mean GCS score for the remote examination was 7.23. Scores were comparable in the FOUR total scores too, with a mean bedside score of 9.63 and a mean remote score of 9.21.

The researchers also asked the clinicians about their overall satisfaction and ease of use. Ninety-five percent of remote providers rated GCS and 89% rated FOUR score as good (4/5).

Conclusions

The study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of telemedicine in assessing patients with depressed levels of consciousness. The results suggest that doctors can reliably assess levels of consciousness in comatose patients using existing robotic telemedicine technology. Healthcare providers could adopt telemedicine to help evaluate critically ill patients in neurologically underserved areas.

“This is good news in many ways,” states lead author of the study, Amelia Adcock, M.D, in a press release issued by Mayo Clinic. “We use telemedicine frequently when evaluating acute stroke patients. This study suggests yet another way telemedicine can enhance patient care. There is a shortage of intensive care unit providers and facilities with round-the-clock patient coverage. Telemedicine can provide a way to ameliorate this shortage and improve early evaluation of critically ill patients.”

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Color Compound in Some Fruits and Vegetables Could Lower Lung Cancer Risk in Smokers

A pigment in oranges, sweet red peppers, and other fruits and vegetables may lower the risk of lung cancer in smokers, according to a new study.

Nicotine is the primary addictive component of tobacco and some e-cigarette liquids. Medical scientists believe nicotine contributes to cancer promotion and progression by activating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The study results suggest that the color compound, known as beta-cryptoxanthin (BCX), reduces the number of these receptors. This means eating fruits and vegetables high in BCX might reduce the risk of lung cancer resulting from smoking.

Doctors diagnose about 222,500 new cases of lung cancer in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and more than 155,000 Americans will die from the disease each year. The American Lung Association notes that male smokers are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than are men who do not smoke, and female smokers are at 13 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than are non-smoking women.

Causing approximately 7,330 deaths among nonsmokers each year, exposure to secondhand smoke is also a risk factor for lung cancer.

Nicotine and the Growth of Lung Tumors

Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 compounds and many of these substances, upon inhalation, act as carcinogens to damage the cells lining the lungs. While nicotine does not cause lung cancer directly, the addictive compound can promote lung tumor growth.

Study co-author Xiang-Dong Wang, of the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, MA, and colleagues provide more insight into how nicotine promotes lung cancer.

When inhaled, nicotine binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α7 (α7-nAChR), which is a nicotine receptor lying on the surface of the lungs. The binding action prompts a signaling cascade that results in the proliferation of cells and the formation of new blood vessels. Cell proliferation and blood vessel formation are processes involved in the growth of cancer.

Nicotine also increases the production of nicotinic receptors, actually creating more α7-nAChR on which to bind. Providing more nicotinic receptors strengthens the signaling cascade, further encouraging the growth of lung cancer cells. In other words, the more a person smokes or suffers secondhand exposure to smoke, the more receptors he or she develops, the stronger the process encouraging the growth cancer.

Wang and colleagues think that consuming BCX could effectively reduce the number of α7-nAChR receptors on the lungs, thereby decreasing the potential growth of lung cancer cells.

In an earlier study, Wang and a team of researchers observed an association between eating foods rich in BCX and a lower risk of lung cancer in humans. In this study, the team focused on pinpointing the mechanisms underlying the link between a BCX-rich diet and lowered risk of lung cancer in smokers.

The scientists administered a daily injection of a carcinogen derived from nicotine to two groups of mice. The test group of mice also received a daily dose of BCX before and after the nicotine injection. The researchers found that, compared with the mice that did not receive the carotenoid, the test group experienced a 52-63 percent reduction in lung tumor growth.

The researchers determined 870 micrograms, which is the equivalent to one sweet pepper or two tangerines per day for humans, as the most effective daily dose of BCX for reducing lung tumor growth.

The team then tests BCX on human lung cancer cells, both with and without α7-nAChR. They discovered that lung cancer cells with α7-nAChR receptors were less likely to spread after exposure to the color compound, as compared with lung cancer cells without those receptors.

Further research could provide a better understanding of how consuming foods rich in beta-cryptoxanthin might affect the development of lung cancer in humans.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Wearable technologies may be able to do much more than monitor a person’s blood pressure or total number of steps each day, according to a new study, which suggests wearable sensors can detect early signs of serious disease.

Wearable biosensors, otherwise known as wearables, are a low-cost technology capable of measuring physiological parameters continuously or frequently. Biosensor technology is a promising approach to monitoring physiological measurements, and these devices could potentially identify significant changes in health conditions. Capable of passive and routine recording, the technology can provide immediate real-time delivery of multiple measurements to the wearer or physician. Software simplifies the technology, so using wearable biosensors requires minimal training and attention from the wearer or the clinician.

In addition to physiological measurements, wearable devices can capture the wearer’s physical activities, such as walking, running, and biking, often in conjunction with a GPS to provide information about the location of the activity.

Wearables can Track Health and Provide Useful Health Information

The newest generation of portable biosensors can measure health-related physiology changes during various activities. The goal of the study, published in PLOS Biology in January 2017, was to investigate the use of portable biosensors in this capacity and their potential role in health management, specifically in the diagnosis and analysis of disease.

The researchers fitted participants with between one and seven commercially available activity monitors. Over the course of the study, the scientists recorded more than 250,000 daily measurements, including participants’ heart rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen, sleep and calories expended collected from up to 43 individuals. The scientists then combined biosensor information with medical measurements to develop a personalized, activity-based normalization framework, which they used to identify abnormal physiological signals and detect disease.

Several participants reported minor cold-like illnesses in the study’s first two years. At the onset of these illnesses, the sensors detected higher than normal readings for skin temperature and heart rate. Blood tests showed an increase in inflammation before symptoms occurred.

The devices could detect physiological differences, namely variations in heart rate patterns, between insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant individuals. The researchers also found interesting physiological changes associated with alterations in environment. Participants’ blood oxygen levels decreased during high-altitude flight, for example, and this decrease in oxygen levels correlated with fatigue.

The wearables even detected physiological changes in one person – lead author of the study, Michael Snyder – who later turned out to have Lyme disease. The geneticist never developed the telltale bulls-eye rash that usually precedes the condition, but his smart watch and other sensors detected changes in his own oxygen levels and heart rate. Shortly afterwards, Snyder developed symptoms and received an official diagnosis of Lyme disease.

The researchers concluded by saying the portable biosensors can provide information useful for the monitoring of personal activities and physiology. These devices will likely play an important role in health management and access to care by those traditionally limited by geography or socioeconomic class.

Lead author of the study, Michael Snyder, said in a press release that today’s wearables are “the equivalent of oral thermometers but you’re measuring yourself all the time.” He added wearables might someday act as a “check engine” light that tells the wearer when it is time to see a doctor.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Prenatal Fish Oil Supplementation May Lower Risk of Asthma in Children

A recent study from the New England Journal of Medicine shows that there may be a correlation in prenatal fish oil lower the risks of asthma in children; read the post below for the details.

Frank Magliochetti

Taking fish oil supplements during pregnancy may lower the risk of asthma in children, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study shows that supplementation with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) during the third trimester can reduce the risk of asthma or persistent wheeze in the babies. LCPUFA supplementation also reduces the risk of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in the offspring.

Asthma in Children is a Significant Problem

Asthma is a common problem in children born in the United States. Approximately 7.4 percent of adults and 8.6 percent of children in the nation have asthma, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), and the number of children with the breathing disorder has been increasing since the 1980s.

Hospitalization rates for asthma are historically higher in the Northeast. Massachusetts has the highest prevalence rate for asthma at 12 percent, according to statistics presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with several other northeastern states following with asthma prevalence rates topping 10 percent.

Fish Oil-Derived LCPUFAs in Pregnancy and Asthma in Offspring

Reduced intake of LCPUFAs may contribute to the increased incidence of wheezing and asthma in children. The researchers in the NEJM study hoped to evaluate the effects of maternal LCPUFA supplementation on offspring.

The scientists enrolled 736 pregnant women at 24 weeks of gestation into the study then randomly assigned the subjects to control and test groups. Participants in the test group received 2.4 g of n−3 LCPUFA derived from fish oil each day, while those in the control group took a placebo containing olive oil daily.

The participants’ offspring became the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC) cohort. The researchers followed this group of children for several years, with pediatricians collecting clinical data for visits at 1 week after birth, and then at 1, 3, 6 months and every 6 months until the children reached 36 months of age. The pediatricians then saw the children yearly until the participants were 5 years old.

Neither the researchers nor the participants knew which group the children belonged to for the first three years of follow-up studies. During the next two years of follow-up studies, only the scientists were unaware of the group assignments.

The researchers looked primarily for persistent wheezing and asthma, but included LRTIs, eczema, asthma exacerbations, and allergic sensitization as secondary endpoints.

Ninety-five percent of the 695 children included in the COPSAC cohort completed the 3-year, double-blind follow-up portion of the study. The researchers found that the risk of asthma or persistent wheeze in the treatment group receiving LCPUFA was 16.9 percent, while the risk was 23.7 percent in the control group. This means consuming fish oil-derived LCPUFAs can lower the risk of persistent wheeze or asthma and LRTIs in offspring by nearly 7 percentage points, or one-third. Analysis of the secondary endpoints showed that supplementation reduces the risk of LRTIs, but there was no association between supplementation and asthma exacerbations, allergic sensitization, or eczema.

These findings would be extremely helpful for expectant mothers hoping to reduce the risk of asthma and other breathing problems in their children.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Spending on health care for children has risen in the past 20 years and a new article sheds light on where the money goes.

Frank Magliochetti

Personal health care spending for children skyrocketed 56 percent between 1996 and 2013, according to a new study published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Increased spending in health care for children reflects the increased spending for patients of all ages, according to the statistics presented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The United States spent about $3.2 trillion for health care in 2015, or $9,990 per person, up 5.8 percent from the year before.

While health care spending on children continues to rise, there is very little data on differences in spending for specific conditions, age groups, gender, and type of care. There is also a paucity of information on how spending patterns have changed over the years. To shed light on these spending patterns, Joseph L. Dieleman, Ph.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and his team of researchers used 183 sources of data and 2.9 billion patient records gathered from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Disease Expenditure 2013 project database. They performed annual estimates for each year from 1996 through 2013 and used inflation-adjusted 2015 dollars to report estimates.

They found that spending for pediatric health care increased from $149.6 billion in 1996 to $233.5 billion in 2013. Spending per child rose from $1,915 in 1996 to $2,777 in 2013.

Most of the money went for well-newborn care in inpatient settings, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and well-dental care. Payers spent $27.9 billion for inpatient well-newborn care, which was the largest condition leading to health care spending.

ADHD and well-dental care services were the second and third largest conditions leading to health care spending in children, with $20.6 billion for ADHD care and $18.2 billion for well-dental care. At $9 billion, asthma care garnered the fourth highest level of spending.

The researchers found that, at $11,741, the greatest spending per child was for infants younger than 1 year in 2013. Spending per child increased over time, rising from $1915 in 1996 to $2777 in 2013. Ambulatory care among all types of care and inpatient well-newborn care, ADHD, and asthma showed the greatest growth.

Just over 30 percent of total children’s health care went for inpatient care, 38.6 percent went towards ambulatory care, and 7.8 percent was spent on retail pharmaceuticals in 2013. More was spent on males than on females.

The findings provide information about spending trends for child health care and serve as a guide for future spending. Payers can expect larger health care spending growth rates for inpatient well-newborn care and ADHD, for example, while health care professionals can gear up to provide an increased amount of care for these conditions.

“The next step should be analyzing the factors driving increased health care spending and determining whether changes in particular subcategories of spending have been associated with improvements in processes or outcomes. It is crucial to understand whether spending increases have been appropriate or misguided and how we might target spending increases and reductions now and in the future,” the authors conclude in a press release.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry. Frank currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

Frank Magliochetti Report

The Human Metapneumovirus is a little known but growing respiratory virus; an emerging pathogen that until very recently was difficult to discover

Frank Magliochetti

Human is a respiratory virus that can cause lower and upper respiratory tract infections, including bronchitis and pneumonia, and may even trigger asthma. Acute respiratory tract infections are the most common reason for doctor office visits, according to the American College of Physicians. Illness associated with hMPV can be severe; the virus is associated with an associated 20,000 hospitalizations of children aged 5 and younger in the United States each year. Elderly and immunocompromised individuals are at higher risk of the disease.

History of hMPV

Until just a few short years ago, the hMPV virus was different from other common respiratory viruses as PCR-based methods using virus genome-specific primers and immunological assays using virus-specific antibodies failed to identify the pathogen. It was only after the application of a molecular biology tool, known as randomly primed PCR, could researchers identify portions of the virus’s genomic sequence.

In 2001, a team of scientists headed by B.G. van den Hoogen identified hMPV in children with respiratory tract infection by using randomly primed PCR to obtain a genomic sequence of the pathogen. Based on the sequence data currently available, the human metapneumovirus seems to be a close relation of another member of the Metapneumovirus genus, the avian pneumovirus.

Since its discovery just over 16 years ago, laboratory testing has confirmed the virus in patients around the globe. Today, scientists recognize human metapneumovirus as an emerging pathogen that may have been causing respiratory tract infections for at least 60 years.

Testing and Treatment of hMPV

Testing is not yet widely available, according to the American Lung Association, but the most common method is by swabbing and testing secretions from the nose or throat. Bronchoscopy may be used to collect specimens in hospitalized patients.

There is no direct treatment for hMPV infection so treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms of fever, runny nose, cough and sore throat. The symptoms of human metapneumovirus typically last for 2 to 5 days. Management focuses on the use of over-the-counter fever and pain remedies along with decongestants.

hMPV Trends in the United States and By Region

hMPV infections typically develop during flu season in winter and early spring, according to a report published in April 2016, and typically after the onset of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects weekly laboratory PCR and antigen testing result data and tracks trends of hMPV by region. In nationwide testing, positive results by PCR testing for the year 2016 peaked at 9 percent in the middle of February while the number of positive antigen tests peaked at 9.5 percent in March.

hMPV peaks later in the Northeast, with positive PCR test results peaking at the end of February and March and a spike in positive antigen results of 10.4 percent at the end of April 2016.

The Midwest had the highest rates of positive test results in 2015, with about 13 percent of hMPV tests returning positive results. The southern section of the United States sees its peak hMPV tests in March with a 10 percent positive antigen testing rate and 8 percent positive PCR rate. The West had high hMPV positive test rates throughout February, reaching their 2016 PCR positive test peak of 11.3 percent in the last week of February. Antigen detection tests yielded unsteady results in that region.

The CDC and other agencies will likely collect more information about hMPV trends and treatments as diagnostic tools become more available.

North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry. Frank plans to release new sites dedicated to the industry – . He currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.